'Crumbs, more crumbs'

Mr Raoof Hasan's article titled "Crumbs, more crumbs" seems to be part of a concerted campaign against an eloquent voice for Pakistan in US at a difficult time, whose diplomatic skills were praised by The Washington Post even before he had formally taken over as an ambassador. Unfortunately Mr Hasan chose the account of the event that fits his argument. He could have read other versions of the story in credible Pakistani newspapers and I quote "Several people present at the gathering on Saturday described certain press and TV reports of what they called a bit of temporary disorder while Ambassador Husain Haqqani was speaking as "exaggerated" and "regrettable"." As for the comment on the passport it has also been quoted out of context unnecessarily. It was never issued as a threat as it has been portrayed, rather as a joke and clarified to be so during the proceedings of that very seminar by the Ambassador himself and his clarification was applauded by the audience. The comment was meant to drive home a point to those who were raising slogans that they did not recognize him as Ambassador of Pakistan, that his official position is beyond doubt. But since Mr Hasan does not believe in verifying facts or listening to logic therefore he missed the lighter side of the comment. Mr. Hasan has the right to express his opinion about Pakistan's US policy but to do that there is no need to attack Pakistan's Ambassador in USA. - RAIHAN RAZA, 58/2, Street 16, G-7/1, Islamabad via e-mail, July 06.